Drug overdosage occurs in 2,000,000 Americans each year and in Great Britain causes 19% of emergency hospitalizations. The infrequent studies of this major health hazard have emphasized dangerous, expensive interventions (diuresis, dialysis, hemoperfusion) or prolonged intensive care, but there is no general acceptance of a simple and inexpensive treatment to limit drug absorption from the gut that can be employed immediately by laymen, ambulance attendants, nurses and physicians on first encountering these patients. The goal of the present project is to develop an optimal mixture of adsorbents and cathartics (mannitol and tromethamine) and to demonstrate its efficacy in dogs, volunteers, and patients. All types of activated charcoals, XAD-2 XAD-4 and XAD-7 resins, kaolin, and cholestyramine will be studied in vitro with eighteen test drugs including weak acids (aspirin, acetaminophen, phenobarbital, secobarbital, triclofos), weak bases (diphenhydramine, imipramine, methadone, methaqualone, propoxyphene), and poorly-ionized drugs (carbon tetrachloride, chloral hydrate, diazepam, ethchlorvynol, ethinamate, glutethimide, trichlorethanol). Optimal combinations of adsorbents and cathartics, stored properly and prepared for patient acceptance will be tested in dogs given usual dosage forms of test drugs. Efficacy will be measured by changes in absorption rate, maximal blood concentration, and fractional drug absorption (area of blood concentration curve). Human volunteers will be given large therapeutic doses of test drugs and the efficacy of the adsorbents and cathartics established from analysis of the time course of drug concentrations in blood and drug recovery from stools. Patients with drug overdoses at University Hospitals will be given the mixture of adsorbents and cathartics with careful analysis of drug content of vomitus, gastric lavage returns, stools and the time course of drug concentrations in blood. After demonstrating the efficacy of an optimal combination of adsorbents and cathartics we will prepare for evaluation of its routine use in regional hospitals.